1825 Honouring Pavarotti, Intrigue , The warrior and the slavegirl, and Merlin

To day I celebrated a meaningless personal achievement having completed the 22.3 of Luxor Majong, this recovered the Statue of Isis as I finally completed the trek across Egypt, also recovering various treasures along the way and being promoted to various positions of employment as I progressed, Because I ended the task with 4 lives I received an additional 400000 bonus points which sent the final tally to 13258200, demolishing the previous best total by some 10 million points having previous only reached level 9.1 I reckon that I have used about forty hours of precious time on the task over the past two weeks to achieve this self congratulation.

I accept it is a poor achievement but I suspect given the way our respective lives have progressed it is a feeling akin to that experienced by Luciano Pavarotti, when celebrating his three decades of performances at the Met Opera, New York, and one of the greatest tenors of the 20th century especially of you like mature powerful voices which can nevertheless communicate the sensitive and tenderest of feelings.

I say a similarity of feeling because when commenting on the occasion it was not the fine words or honour done to him which mattered, but that he was able to put in the best performance he was capable of on the particular night. I am usually hopeless as seeing what there and spotting pairs of matching tiles with unfamiliar symbols is not something I am naturally good at, although patience and persistence is something developed over the decades rather than something natural to my personality. So although the vast chasm in terms of skills and worldly recognition I reckon the sense of personal achievement was similar.

Most people in the world, unless they have to live as peasants or nomads without access to the radio will have heard the voice of Pavarotti and the majority will have at least seen his performance, along with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, as part of the three tenors concert during Italia 90.

Last night I experienced his performance at the Metropolitan Opera New York to celebrate three decades of appearances there. He played three roles from three operas in succession- the final act of L’ Elixir de Amor one of his favourites because he plays a character with whom he identifies and because of the vocal requirements of the role. This was followed by the penultimate Act of La Boheme which was the first role he ever performed after winning a competition in Italy while continuing his life as a young primary school teacher. He was not paid for the performance and his next two brought him £25 dollars each. This was however progress because he had grown up in combative poverty with his parents and their three other children in two rooms. His father a baker and an amateur tenor and his mother working in a tobacco factory. While he was influenced by Gigli and Caruso the individual who inspired his childhood was Mario Lanza, imitating his performances at the mirror when he came home from seeing the films. It was his success in the singing competition than made him decide to try and become a professional opera singer.

The final performance at the gala was the last scene from Aida and thus the gala evening included two of the operas which have influenced me so much over past weeks. At the end of the evening as the great and the good took the stage including Mayor Giuliani to name the day Luciano Pavarotti day in the city Luciano commented that when considering how to celebrate the occasion he had decided that what he wanted to do was to satisfy himself of his continuing ability to sing for that is all he ever wanted to do. He also spoke of Puccini who at the end of his life returned to his home for pasta and wine thus echoing the wisdom of the ages about what is important in life and what is not. Pavarotti was also able to die in thee town of his birth when the fight against cancer became lost

.For the first four years of his professional career he toured the opera houses of Europe but he did not become established as a leading tenor until touring Australia on the recommendation of Joan Sutherland in 1965 and it was not until 1968 that he first appeared at the Met, also La singing, La Boheme and then at La Scala in 1972. Luciano continued to perform until the end of his life dying before his 72nd birthday It was at the Winter Olympics at Turino in 2006 that he performed on the stage for the last time singing Nessum Dorma.

He was married twice with three daughters from his first marriage of 34 years and one from his second who he had married in 2003 having been his personal assistant for many years. As often happens with the death of men of wealth who have married more than once there were problems over the estate when it was found that he had made a new will which was different to the first which followed Italian law and practice. However the matter was settled between the lawyers representing the various family interests. He had owned property in Italy, Monte Carlo and three apartments in New York as well as having funds based in the USA and Italy. The family were well provided and we all have his records and DVD’s.

I had not planned to watch the Pavarotti Gala performance having decided on Renee Fleming who introduces many of the Live HD Relays but who I have not heard sing. I choose the first Opening Night Gala in which like Pavarotti she sings three Acts from three Operas and where the show was telecast live to Times Square. However for some reason I could not turn the picture into full screen and therefore abandoned and searched until coming across the Pavarotti. It was the first I had seen and heard him perform in these operas.

I had planned to write about O Lucky Man the 1970’s cult Lindsey Anderson film about aspects of the never have it so good post World Wear British Society starring Malcolm, McDowell and featuring Alan Price and his music. Unfortunately I fell asleep towards the end of last night’s Channel Four showing and very tired when I awoke made my way to bed and instant sleep. It was well after 1 am. So I will leave to another day. It does give me time to catch up with Intrigue, an excellent example of the post war approach to the Orient and the worldwide problem of the Black Market. In the cities of the UK families were used to surviving on very little as food and clothing was rationed and shops had very little to sell so that queues formed daily for whatever was available. There was always something however for those prepared to pay and who had the right connections. The film stars George Raft one of four men cashiered from the USA airforce after being caught with contraband on their plane.

Two of the four were dead as George and his dependent alcoholic comrade attempted to make a living flying freight in a ramshackle plane and ostracised by everyone he is driven to undertaking a smuggling flight of genuine US whisky. However this proves exceptionally perilous and George demands from his unknown employer a substantial increase in payment to undertake further missions. In order to get to see his boss he hijacks the whisky. He finds that the employer is a woman of undoubted sexual charm played by June Havoc. Madame Tamara Baranoff is indeed the lady from Shanghai where most films about the Orient were then set. He does a deal with the lady which includes a partnership and her personal favours much to the disgust of her former right hand man who goes off and joins her main competitor for the dark business.

This is the cue for the arrival of Linda Parker who is really Linda Arnold the sister of one of the discredited four flyers whose living parents remain emotional destroyed by what happened and the loss of her son. She has taken the job with an orphanage as a means of trying to clear his name and befriends Raft in an effort to uncover the truth. Raft likes her but is in ignorance of what happened and becomes even more embittered when his remaining colleague kills himself. He therefore embarks on his new career with enthusiasm and steals back several tons of rice which have been hijacked by the competition. Also arriving on the seen is an airforce friend of Raft who is a reporter attempting to expose those involved in Black Market and its impact upon the average citizens who sleep on the street and die of hunger. There are some heart rendering scenes at the orphanage of eastern child who speak English and like to play baseball and same heavily underlined statements about the evil nature of the trade. When the reporter discovers the identities of those involved and persuades and local editor to print the story he is mown down when an employee steals the copy and warns the competitor who in turn has a pow wow and together they first sanction the killing and that of Raft when he sees the error of his ways. Madame Baranoff and the competitors as well as her former assistant all meet appropriate ends as Raft discovers that she was behind the smuggling which got him discharged without honour from the service. He goes off to live happy ever after with the sister of his former comrade as he opens the store of food to the populace to help themselves.

The spirit of what is good and honourable also flows through a production on the latter years of St Peter played by Omar Sherriff. This has strong echoes of Quo Vadis, Demetrious and Gladiators and such like without the quality of script, acting and cinematic production. It is a blatant attempt to preach the original core value of Christianity but all too sugary to have any effect except with the already converted. It does not shy away from the barbarity and immorality of the time but somehow fails to have the edge which will have any effect, even if such films have little effect anyway. The exception being Mel Gibson’s Passion although I would be surprised if all but the already converted to a religious faith would go to see this film and which is a horror movie but not of the kind which attracts young people on weekend evenings.

The Italian film industry is understandably much into making films about the toga wearing decades and the latest in the genre is the Warrior and the Slave girl. The only true love during this period appears be between slaves and their masters! In this instance the young and upcoming son of a Senator close to the Emperor Nero fixes for his son to become the military head to Roman Consul or Armenia, ) I think) where the token King is a sickly child managed by his older and attractive sister who in turn has a chief adviser from a neighbouring nation anxious to take over the power and the riches not yet handed over to Rome. Enter the leader of the rebels who has earned his keep as a Gladiator and the requisite fiery slave girl. The young Warrior remains idealistic about Roman values which in reality never existed and frees most of the slaves and dissenting population who are in custody. The exception is the fiery slave who he packs off look after the ailing boy king suspecting something is not right and in fact he is being slowly poisoned by his older sister who pretends to be interested in the warrior as a means of gaining power of him. There are various adventures and double dealing before the Princess in stopped from taking over the throne and giving control to her advisers and his mercenaries. The ex Gladiator leader of the rebels losses his life on behalf of his people (the gladiator in the film of the life of St Peter lays down his arms and escapes with his wife and family in contrast). Also dying is the best friend of the Warrior and the midget fool, fool in the historical sense of entertainer, to the young king. The warrior and slave girl survive for each other and to protect the young king to achieve a model Roman controlled state within its empire.

I also caught up with three episodes of the second series of Merlin which included a two week episode called Beauty and the Beast which was great fun for five year old boys and the likes of me. A Troll, those who like to eat rotten food and dung and who farts at every opportunity finds with the help her serpent like assistant, the means to make her look not only beautiful but the grown up daughter of the deposed king and friend of the Prince Arthur’s father who has remained single since the loss of his wife. He is quickly besotted by the Troll in disguise who gives him a charm which makes him see her as he would like to, even when Merlin finds a way of destroying the potion which turned into a adorable human being. Everyone has great fun and five years old and the likes of me enjoyed the farting and the farcical situations.

It was a fitting end to a week of political hypocrisy.

La Boheme Metropolitan Opera on I player Relay 2009

There is much to write about but until today no inclination to write about experience as I immersed in new additional experience although not necessarily original experience.

I have seen La Boheme before, on stage at Oxford and possibly on the small screen although no recollection and it may have been one of the operas I was taken to see as a schoolboy by my birth and care mothers and their eldest sister. I went to see Carmen definitely either as a schoolchild perhaps later because it was about Spain and gypsies and I knew that my care mother and maybe some of her other sisters had been on at least one trip to see gypsy women as well as Spanish ladies in traditional costume over the border probably at some Catholic festival. I am vague about their recollections before they came to England because their memories were not recorded and there was a long period when we did not talk about their life in Gibraltar. Harriet wanted to, but Mabel and Lena did not. I was a decade too late when I wanted to know Now all their brothers and sisters have also gone as have my older first cousins

It was a good day to watch La Boheme on the BBC i player, the coldest since last Winter, just above zero C for most of the 24 hours. La Boheme is perhaps the most watched opera along with Madam Butterfly and Carmen because of the almost continuous romantic lyricism to the extent that the audience can become overwhelmed by its combination of beautiful singing and profound emotional intensity. Most have heard the aria Che gilda manina What a cold little hand. La Boheme opened the Metropolitan Live relay season this year and I had arranged a weekend trip to see it but then Cineworld bottled out and although I could have gone locally if there were places I decided against and hesitated on discovering there was a recent production, possible the same as being shown on the live relay

La Boheme is intended to convey a place where Bohemians live and although written in Italian by the great Italian composer Puccini, the author of Madam Butterfly, Turandot and Tosca, it is traditionally set in an artistic quarter of Paris such as Montmartre of garrets and cafes, the land of Toulouse Lautrec and Berlioz. In this instance the hero is a poet Rodolfo who shares lodging with Marcello a painter, with friends Schainard, a musician and Colline. a philosopher. The heroine is Mimi, a seamstress, often portrayed as innocent and with Musetta, the singer, as worldly. The friends are cold and hungry until the musician arrives having secured work with an eccentric Englishman. They decide to celebrate with a meal out at cafe in the evening but Rodolfo remains to finish some work and Mimi who lives in the building calls for a match as her candle has blown out. She then loses her key and they interact as they fall in love, one of the most celebrated couplings in culture.

In the Met production there is one of the most dramatic scene changes in the history of opera presentation because of the speed at which the stage is transformed from the garret into a spectacular street and cafe scene filled with people including marching soldiers at one point. There are hundreds of extras and chorus including school children and some 80 stage hands are used to make the switch Rodolfo takes Mini along to meet his friends where Marcello finds a past love, Musetta. dining with a government Minister of my years. She sings provocatively trying to win back the affections of the painter. Musetta leaves the whole bill for the two parties for the Minister to pay when the total is more than the money gained from the work for the Englishman.

Time has passed with the third act in which Mini visits Marcello who is lodging at an Inn where he is working to complain that Rodolfo is rejecting her. Rodolfo is in fact inside the Inn and when he comes out Mimi hides and overhears him explain that he is pretending not to love because he believes she has become seriously ill and as he does not have the means to provide for her care, he is feigning a lack of interest so that she will find someone who can care for her properly and finding that he is overheard the two are reunited in their profound love for each other while Marcello and Musetta quarrel as a counterpoint.

In the final act Musetta discovers Mimi wandering the streets overcome by her illness having lived for a time with a wealthy viscount while Marcello and Rodolfo have been sharing lodgings working hard while separated from their true loves. They do their best to provide medical help and medicine for Mimi but it is too late and she dies. In 1957 papers were discovered which revealed that Puccini had written a middle third act which explains how Mimi came to meet her wealthy suitor after Musetta had been thrown out of her home with her furniture after crossing her protector.

The story is therefore not complex and as with all Puccini it is that unique combination of the operatic voice with beautiful and sensitive music, and with great acting and wondrous settings creates an experience where only the most gifted can match with words. Although on the comparatively small screen and without the sense of immediacy it was as great an experience as with Madam Butterfly and AIDA.

Turandot relayed from the Metropolitan 2009

My third live HD performance from the New York Metropolitan Opera House was Turandot which I have always pronounced and Turando but it is dot and which means I did not listen to the as intently as I should to my Deutsche Grammophon Herbert Von Karajan recording with Placido Domingo as Calaf and Katia Riccardelli as Turandot.

On my first visit to a performance at the Tyneside Film Theatre I used the Hewath long stay car park, returning to find there were two cars left in the isolated and darkened area with the attendant long since departed. Tonight I chose the short stay park in front of the Metro and bus station and where there is also a taxi rank. There is a maximum stay of four hours during the payment period so that by arriving after 4pm one pays £1.70 and this takes you past the time when charges are made. The cost is about the same as the all day charge for the long stay park. I had prepared a salad which I eat most after which I had a banana. I had only eaten a piece of fish for lunch and a cereal breakfast determined to continue to reduce weight having achieve 16.7 which means I have lost a full stone since letting the it get out of hand again. This time there will be no return and I will not be content until another stone has been removed.

Arriving in the city centre around 5.30 I assumed there was time to take a quick look at suits at the British Homes store and indeed after a brisk walk through Fenwicks noting that the Christmas window display was being watched by the usual large crowd and I checked that while there are suits with 44in waists there were only 31 inch trousers and not the 29 I need and a brisk return the clock was only striking 5.45 as I joined a large queue entering the classic cinema stalls. On entering the auditorium I discovered there were only seats left in the first three rows and that every seat had been booked. making the total audience 200 as evidently by word of mouth the good news has spread. On leaving I had a conversation with a woman who said that she and her husband and attempted to gain tickets on Friday and they had been offered the last one. From next until December 11th remains Operas can be booked for a package price from £85 to £110 and then open to the general public. I would not be surprised if the demand continues to accelerate. To mark the development the Cinema provided a programme which was quickly snapped up.

Turandot is not a great opera although it does contain Nessum Dorma although the third act provides the opportunity for some brilliant singing and where the three main performers were exceptional. The settings were also on the scale of Aida.

The story is a simple one with no complications. Prince Calaf and his father who is accompanied by a devoted slave girl are on the run in China. The son meets up with his vanquished father who he has not seen for many years in the city of Peking just as the 12th suitor for the hand of the Princess is to be executed for failing to answer all her three riddles. The penalty for failure to be drawn and quartered and after your head after being severed from the body to be stuck on a pole outside the palace as a warning to other suitors. The Princess is a powerful woman who has no intention of yielding her will or body to a man. The prince is impressed by the devotion of the slave girl played by Marina Popavskaya whose performance was the outstanding one the night although it has come in for some criticism from Lisa Lindstrom. She came to fame in London in 2007 when she took over a role in Don Carlos after Angela Gheorghiu decided was not for her.

A Russian born performer until 2005 Marina has the looks and figure to play young women who can drive any man into passionate madness, as well as the kind of voice I prefer, full of subtlety and sincerity rather than range and power. She was totally convincing as the slave girl who had stayed with the deposed king in the hope she would one day come across his son the only love of her life, a love which she knew was hopeless.

When interviewed by the Evening Standard Marina was very revealing stating that although her mother was a trained chemist with five specialist diplomas she worked as a Taxi driver because it paid more and despite her daughters own new wealth and married to a man forty years her senior with three step sons older than her, and seven step grand children, her mother insisted on earning her own keep. Marina was said have refused to speak of her father or of the Russian billionaires and was spending her time between London and the USA which she now regards as home.

The Calaf is played by the large Marcello Giordani who I saw as the ruthless and despicable Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly in March and again on the Met I player within the past two weeks. This time his role is that of teh crass insensitive and foolhardy Prince who despite knowing that she has callously sentenced 12 predecessors to horrible death, falls in love with Turandot on seeing her at a distance and being able to detect that her perfume fills the night. I could not help thinking that the stench of her blood spilling would have made any honourable young man nauseous. Despite a great performance of Nesum Dorma which brought the house down, but a long way short of Pavarotti of course.

Maria Guleghina played Turandot. She is also Russian born and internationally regarded as one of the great contemporary soprano’s with 130 performances at the Met already to her name and has played all the major female roles for soprano’s around the world. She was brilliant as the bitch from hell prepared to slaughter everyone in the city rather than be forced by her father to give herself to any man let alone the out of town stranger without an entourage or the apparent means to keep her in the lifestyle of someone self proclaimed as no ordinary woman.

The first act also introduces us to Ping, Pang and Pong, something which it was possible to get away with in 1926 when Puccini created this his last operatic work. These are the three trusted servants of the Palace who are usually responsible for the funeral of the rest of the remains of beheaded suitors but who also have plans for a wedding should an individual be successful. They provide humorous interludes between the high drama.

The second Act concentrates on the decision of the Calaf to sound the gong three times to announce his intention to the Princess and the rest of the city to meet the challenge of the three riddles. There are great efforts on the part of the slave girl, his father and Ping, Pang and Pong to dissuade him from attempting the challenge but as is Puccini’s wont, passion always overcomes reason and brings havoc and causing the life of at least one young innocent and good woman.

In fairness to Turandot she was not necessarily born the way she has become but somewhere along in her education, and there is no reference about what age she lost her mother, she learnt than one of her ancestors and been abducted and then killed after he had had his way by a conquering Prince. There is also an element that all woman want a man who will in fact conquer and tame them, a sentiment which Shakespeare also exposed in the Taming of the Shrew and which is frequently the defence of the rapist, she was asking for it or she really meant yes when she was crying out no.

Calaf having worked out the answer to the third riddle Turandot appeals to her father and then to Calaf not to hold her to the marriage, and Calaf also typical for his character is not content just to have her but wants her to submit willingly and gives her the challenge to find out his name and which if she does before dawn he will free her by giving up his life as had the previous suitors. Big Mistake.

The third act deals with the repercussions of this folly. The city is ordered not to sleep and the King‘s men ravage the city in search of clues as to the name of the suitor. Understandably rather than be massacred the citizens draw attention that the suitor was seen in the company with a man and his slave girl and they are apprehended.

Meanwhile Calaf is made offers which most sane men would not refuse. He can have as many young women to be his marital slaves as he wishes, he can have untold riches and he can have power in being given a kingdom to rule all if he flees the city and abandon his hold over Turandot, and in which instance she will stop her reign of terror. After capture the slave girl pretends that while she knows the name her employer does not, thus saving the life of her master. She also fears she will reveals the name under torture and stalls in order to be able to seize a knife to kill herself. This appears to have some effect on Turandot and after we the audience recover from the singing finale of the slave girl there are dramatic and moving exchanges between the Calaf and Turandot in which she eventually succumbs after he forces on her a kiss. I have to say this was the approach of the son good for nothing son of Burl Ives in the Big Country after he had abducted Jean Simmons in order to make her his wife and thus gain control of the Big Muddy. The Opera ends in a grand finale chorus which reminds of One fine day and the couple appear to prepare to be married, to rule together and to live happy ever after while the body of the slave girl, still warm is carried off with the old king holding her hand.

However having listen to the second CD of the Placido Domingo version while writing this, playing Luxor Majong and attending to my feet after soaking them in hot water, I realise that the words and attack on the construction and morality of the story has to be put aside when listening to the Puccini at the height of his creativity and the singing, such glorious singing which led the audience in the cinema to break out in applause along with the Met audience at every opportunity. In the interval I felt in need of a coffee and went downstairs to the street bar where I had a chat with one of the young male assistants who was most interested to hear about what was happening at the theatre and had attracted such a large audience. I also learnt from the programme that at the Tyneside bar which is upstairs between the two upper cinemas shows the interval programmes on screen and is something I must explore in the future especially if they also provide coffee. It was a good cup of Americano. I finished off the salad in the car before going home where I rounded of the evening with a ready made sausage mash and onion and a Christmas film I thought I was to see at midday.

The European lottery of £90 million was won last night with both tickets having been issued in England/ By this morning no one had come forward and then someone had, but another is yet to be confirmed. I checked and double checked my on line numbers and the ticket bought at the supermarket but alas I was not close. Drat Drat and more drat. What I could do with £45 million.

Film 24plusfree channel i.e. within the Sky entertainment subscription ,is showing back to back Christmas films with this afternoon and evening Chasing Christmas and The Christmas Card followed by 12 days of Christmas Eve and A boyfriend for Christmas for Christmas both films viewed yesterday.
The 12 days is a take on Groundhog Day, the film in which the same day is repeated without change until the hero finds the key to move on. In teh twelve days Calvin Carter (played by Steven Weber) is a successful business executive who has it all, but neglects those closest to him. On Christmas Eve, all that changes when the sign on his office building falls on him. He awakens in a hospital bed, attended by Angie (played by Molly Shannon), an angel in the guise of a nurse, who informs him that he has twelve days—that is, twelve chances—to get his act together and achieve the "perfect" Christmas Eve, or there will be dire consequences. The film does take account of the song the Twelve days of Christmas and has elements of a Christmas Carol and surprise surprise he does manage to work out that grand financial gestures especially those of a public kind get him back on the ward and that the solution is to be kind without having other motivation and spend quality time with his family.

A boyfriend at Christmas is three stories into one. A man has spent his whole life creating a year long theme park about Christmas which falls on hard times, especially after his wife who handled teh finances dies and as a consequence he is unable to communicate in a meaningful way with his daughter who goes off to the big city and becomes a successful business woman with no time for Christmas home with dad until he has an accident. She returns to find the business in peril. Many year ago when I youngster she had an influential conversation with a young visitor about Ballet and the Nutcracker favourite for Christmas time. He is the only child of a wealthy couple who have little time for his direct care and he returns to the town where he had a memorable Christmas and where he makes crafted wooden dolls. The two re-meet up and with a common interest in the quality of life and maintaining the Christmas tradition they join forces to try and save the theme park turning to a visitor who appears anxious to help. He is part of a syndicate who successfully take away property in financial difficulties and which has development potential. How they do this is main flaw in this Christmas tale. However a combination of brilliant money raising ideas and Christmas spirit the theme park is saved, the boyfriend becomes financially independent though his individually crafted toys, father and daughter are reconciled and she returns home to a new and better life and love. Oh if real life were so! For the two winners of the £45 million Christmas come early.